Lure of the Temptress (1992)

This is something I still own today for my Atari ST. It's a classic game alright and I love the little touches like the background actions and how the community interacts and goes about their business. The artwork and sounds are superb. Just an all-round awesome game but my only critism is sometimes its lack of guidance because you're often left wondering what's next and this can get some players feeling lost. Google for the Atari ST game over on AtariCrypt because it's a Christmas cracker and Lure Of the Temptress is something every adventurer should play :)

Normally I play games primarily for their stories, characters and/or the gameplay. Graphics? Who cares about that. However, this game is kind of the reverse case. The gameplay has a really cool idea behind it, but the execution is terrible, primarily due to the atrocious pathfinding. The story itself is a run-off-the-mill fantasy story about a young farmer man saving the kingdom! (eventhough the end hat two funny twists I enjoyed) So nothing special. But it really is beautiful! I love how the game works with darker colours and a lot of black spaces in a way which enhances the beautifully drawn backgrounds! This alone made it worth it for me. Well, and I like midi sounds.

I gave this game a try, since it is 1) free and 2) old enough to be a "classic" The story about some "orc-invasion" was far from new even when this game was made, I bet. But they added some absurd and funny scenes & characters which makes the weak "orc"story sometimes less boring. And the main character, who became an adventurer "by chance" together with his sidekick "Ratpouch" .. well, I do like this kind of humor - others may find it plain stupid.. The manual features the same style of humor, by the way. The sounds are.. well, I thougt my speakers were damaged when i finally went past the intro-screen. But they implemented an option to silence the game. Good forward thinking, boys. The graphics are good enough! It is an old game, remember ? You can see whats going on, there are animations, several people walking around or sitting and drinking.. The interface is the main reason why I don´t really like this game. You have to click onto something/someone, then choose an action. Sounds easier then it actually is, since some characters tend to keep running away when you want to interact with them. Also some places and items are hidden so well, I for my part ended up looking for a "walkthrough".. I found playing it was more "work" than "fun" so I can´t really recommend it. After all - give this game a try if you have got this "What did I miss by not buying and playing this game back then??" feeling.

While I love medieval rompers and mysteries, this was just too much random talking to people to figure out what to do next. Some of the things you have to do are not intuitive and there's not much to do but find the right item and say the right thing to the right person at the right time to advance. Decent graphics and interface, but too slow and monotonous to keep my interest.

I remember having this years ago on my atari st it was good then and i enjoyed it a lot. Although as some have said the game engine in it was a little frustrating at times, when people bump into you all the time and the story narrative gets interrupted quite a bit sometimes, but otherwise this is a great adventure game. The developers who made this are revolution who also done the highly acclaimed broken sword series so this is were they started. Great.